Upcycled Wooden Cross

Step by step instructions showing you how to make your own cross using an old wooden beam, presented by Crafty Corner

Old wooden pallets, broken furniture? There is so much wood lying around that can easily be recycled into something. With this upcycling craft we created a beautiful handmade cross from some wooden off-cuts which were lying around. Our easy step by step instructions will show you how easy it is to make your own!

What you will need:

Wood saw, electric or manual

Router, or chisel

Wood glue

Wood clamps

Length of wood

Sandpaper

Mallet

Step 1

Select a length of wood that you can cut into two equal lengths, in this project my piece of wood was 680mm x 40mm x 70mm.

Step 2

Measure your wooden beam, find the centre point and rule a line here.

Step 3

Use your wood saw and a miter box (if you have one) to cut the beam in half. In my case I now have two beams that are each 340mm in length.

Step 4

Using your pencil, mark off the width of the center beam so that you know where to cut. The marks should be about two thirds of the way up on the piece of wood that will be the upright beam. My wood beam is 70mm wide, so the distance between the two pencil marks should be 70mm.

Step 5

Clamp your wooden beam to your work bench. Now take your router and set it to half the thickness of the beam (20mm) - we only want to cut halfway down.

Step 6

Now you need to use your router (or wood chisel) and remove the wood between the two lines. It's a good idea to work slowly and carefully, making sure not to over-cut.

Step 7

Once you have removed all the wood up to and including your pencil lines, your beam should look something like this.

Step 8

Now mark off the next area, this beam will for the horizontal beam of your cross. Measure and find the centre of the beam, and then use your pencil and tape measure to measure 35mm on either sie, so that you have two pencil lines in the middle of the beam that are 70mm apart.

Step 9

Remove the wood between the lines using your router. You should now end up with two beams with a section of wood removed.

Step 9

Using sandpaper, sand the edges that are rough from the sawing and routing.

Step 10

Match the two areas together so that the cuts interlock. Check to ensure that they slide together, even if you have to hammer them with a mallet. The final product should be that the cross peaces are now flush with each other.

Step 11

If the pieces of recycled wood match nicely, it is time to glue them together. Glue along the edges, as well as on the face of the wood.

Step 12

Once you have applied the glue, press firmly or clamp to make sure the wood glues together properly.